A former mortgage banker from Oklahoma pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to defrauding two local banks, mortgage giant Fannie Mae and others through an allegedly broad range of fraudulent conduct over three years, the federal insurer of bank deposits said Wednesday.
According to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), Ronald J. McCord, 70, of Oklahoma City pleaded guilty to the charges. McCord is the former chairman and founder of First Mortgage Co. LLC (FMC). Last June, McCord was indicted on 24 counts including those of bank fraud, money laundering, and making a false statement to a financial institution.
“According to court documents and yesterday’s plea hearing, McCord admitted to defrauding Spirit Bank and Citizens State Bank – two state-chartered financial institutions – as well as their respective residential mortgage subsidiaries, American Southwest Mortgage Corporation and American Southwest Mortgage Funding Corp.,” the FDIC release stated.
It added that an independent audit discovered that McCord had sold more than $14.1 million in Spirit/Mortgage Corp. and Citizens/Funding Corp. loans “out of trust” by failing to repay Spirit/Mortgage Corp. when certain Spirit/Mortgage Corp.-initiated loans were refinanced or otherwise paid off. At the time of that discovery, the FDIC said, FMC carried outstanding balances of about $200 million and $140 million on the Spirit/Mortgage Corp. and Citizens/Funding Corp. lines of credit, respectively.
The U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma said McCord faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on each count of bank fraud and false statement to a financial institution. He also faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the money laundering count. However, per the terms of his plea agreement, the U.S. attorney’s office said, the government agreed not to advocate at sentencing for a sentence above 104 months.
Under the plea agreement, McCord will be ordered to pay restitution to the victims of his conduct in amounts to be determined by the court at the time of sentencing. McCord must also forfeit proceeds of the fraudulent schemes and property involved in the offenses. Further, the law enforcement agency said, as part of the plea agreement, the government will dismiss at sentencing the remaining counts of the Indictment.